Four-Star Sex Scandal

As a general rule, anything that is embarrassing to one person will be funny to others. And if an instance of that general rule involves an actual general, or better yet two, and they are ensnared in a sex scandal, the tsk-tsking of public officials is quickly accompanied by the snickering of the public at large.

But a snicker is not a real laugh. For that, you need a joke, or preferably, as I’m a cartoonist, a cartoon. So here’s one of mine, ripped from today’s headlines.

Actually yesterday’s, or, more precisely, yesteryear’s. This cartoon was published in 1997, and would be perfect for today, except for the fact that it doesn’t involve a possible breach of security. For that, you’d have to go back to 1958:

Decades ago, this kind of inappropriate behavior was not even considered inappropriate. Extracurricular activities of this kind were often on the curriculum of men in positions of public power, and some men found boobs justification enough to turn themselves into one:

These liaisons became truly dangereuse only when the commander who commands all the other commanders—the Commander-in-Chief—was almost undone by the snapping of a thong and the sniping of an Independent Counsel investigating l’affaire Lewinsky:

By now, you would think that Americans might be very cautious about prematurely putting our public officials on a pedestal. But if we must, I think this suggestion, by the cartoonist Mick Stevens, is apt.